Tennis Betting – Britons Promote Cup Interest But Russia Can Prevail

I can’t recall there ever being the slightest interest among layers previously in pricing up the Hopman Cup. The traditional curtain-raiser to the tennis year, staged at the Burswood Centre in Perth, Western Australia for the past 21 years, has always passed relatively unnoticed by bookmakers and punters alike. 2010, however, is different. Andy Murray’s decison to take in the singles/mixed doubles round-robin tournament  instead of his usual route via the Qatar Open in Doha as part of his preparation for the Australian Open has attracted a lot of media interest, enhanced by the fact that the Scot is being partnered by former Wimbledon junior champion Laura Robson, whom many believe is that most rare of creatures, a British girl with the potential to make it to the upper echelons of the women’s game. Ranked three in the world, Murray is by far and away the highest rated player in the event and would be expected to win all three of his group singles matches. But he’s never excelled at the doubles game, while Robson may struggle to compete, at this stage of her career, with the likes of Elena Dementieva and Sabine Lisicki in her singles matches. Taking into account both will have bigger fish to fry in the months ahead not even Skybet’s 11-2 makes much appeal for Great Britain to win the event. That honour could go to Russia, who team Dementieva with Igor Andreev. The latter has been ranked in the world’s top 40 for the past three years and won more matches than he’s lost on the ATP Tour while his partner is currently ranked fifth in the world and, just as importantly, has bags of experience on the doubles circuit. Russia  7-2 with Ladbrokes to win the tournament and 6-4 with Betfred and Ladbrokes to win Group B, should have the measure of Germany (a general 6-1 for overall success) and Great Britain in their section and are fancied to see off Group A fancies Spain (7-1 with Betfred to win outright) in the final.